Blast furnace servicing apparatus



Aug. 5, 1969 KUMAO UESHIMA ETAL 3,459,418

BLAST FURNACE SERVICING APPARATUS Filed July 21, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYS Aug. 5, 1969 KUMAO UESHIMA ETAL ,4 9,

BLAST FURNACE SERVICING APPARATUS Filed July 21. 19.67 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 BYL/LAM: r 'OIMAL ATTORNEYS United States Patent O US. Cl. 26641 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A blast furnace servicing apparatus by which the efficiency and interchangeability of the auxiliary equipment is increased and by which the cast house operations is mechanized. Said blast furnace servicing apparatus is characterized in that, in an upright blast furnace having a bustle pipe for hot air, annular rails are provided just below the bustle pipe for hot air so as to surround the periphery of the furnace. Such auxiliary equipment as tuyere replacing means, tapping hole opening means, tapping hole closing means (e.g. a mud gun), and slag notch opening and closing means are provided with wheels and at least one motor and are suspended on said annular rails. Siding rails and direction changing means operatively associated with said annular rails are provided so that said pieces of auxiliary equipment can be removed from the annular rails at the position of said direction changing means and said siding rails.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to a servicing apparatus for a blast furnace including auxiliary equipment enclosed within a cast house and comprising tuyere replacing means, tapping hole opening means, tapping hole closing means (e.g. a mud gun), and slag notch opening and closing means.

Description of the prior art Generally, in a blast furnace for making iron, scores of tuyeres for injecting hot air into the furnace are fitted into the sides of the furnace. Said tuyeres must often be replaced during the operation of the furnace. In the past, this operation of replacing a tuyere has been carried out substantially by man power and by means of such simple tools as a chain fall. With the need for an increase in operating efficiency and the increased size of blast furnaces, it is necessary and desirable that operations, such as the tuyere replacement, be mechanized. However, as the size of the furnace in creases, said replacing apparatus becomes difficult to handle and it becomes diiiicult and expensive to mechanize said tuyere replacement operation.

For this reason, it is desirable that said scores of tuyeres be controlled with only a few tuyere replacing means. Therefore, to handle said large number of tuyeres, it is necessary that said replacing means be freely moveable about the blast furnace. In addition to said tuyere replacing means, the cast house of a blast furnace contains such auxiliary equipment as tapping hole opening means, tapping hole closing means (e.g. a mud gun), and slag notch opening and closing means. Almost all of said auxiliary equipment is fixed or semi-fixed with respect to location.

In said tuyere replacement operation, said auxiliary equipment obstructs the movement of said tuyere replacing means. Also, in the case when said replacement 3,459,418 Patented Aug. 5, 1969 operation is conducted using man power, especially when carried out near the tapping hole and the slag notch, said auxiliary equipment will be in the way and thus it will take a long time to replace the tuyeres. Further more, due to the high temperature, the operation has been very difficult because the environment in which the operation is conducted is so bad that there has been a high incident of fatigue among the operators.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to solve the problem set forth above and to provide a blast furnace servicing operation which is effective in making the tuyere replacement operation easy and in saving labor and time in the performance of said operation.

It is a further object to provide a blast furnace servicing apparatus by which all the auxiliary equipment is made freely movable about said blast furnace, that is to say, a servicing apparatus by which the efiiciency and interchangeability of the auxiliary equipment is increased and the cast house operation is mechanized.

The present invention achieves these objectives by providing a blast furnace servicing apparatus characterized in that, in an upright blast furnace, annular rails are provided just below a bustle pipe for hot air so as to surround the periphery of the furnace. Such auxiliary equipment as tuyere replacing means, tapping hole opening means, tapping hole closing means (e.g. a mud gun), and slag notch opening and closing means (e.g. a mud gun), and slag notch opening and closing are provided with wheels and at least one motor and are suspended on said annular rails. Siding rails and direction changing means operatively associated with said annular rails are provided so that said pieces of auxiliary equipment can be removed from the annular rails of the position of said direction changing means and said siding rails.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above objectives will be more clearly understood when considered in view of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic plan View of an arrangement of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the tuyere replacing means in an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the tapping hole opening means in an embodiment of the present inventi-on'.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIGURE 1 shows an arrangement of the present invention as applied to a large blast furnace 1 having a bustle pipe 2 for hot air and having two tapping holes. Annular rails 3 are around the periphery of a blast furnace body 1 just below the bustle pipe 2 for hot air, so as to surround the periphery of the furnace. Various pieces of auxiliary equipment, including tuyere replacing means 4, tapping hole opening means 5, tapping hole closing means (e.g. a mud gun) 6, and slag notch opening and closing means 7, are suspended on said annular rails 3 by means of driving wheels which will be described later. Said arrangement contains a tapping trough 8 at each tapping hole and a slag notch 10. Hot air tuyeres 9 are provided around the entire periphery of the furnace. Directions changing means such as a turntable 11, are positioned wherever desired on said annular rails and siding rails 12 are connected to said direction changing means so that whenever a piece of equipment is to be repaired or is in the way of another piece of said equipment, it can be freely removed onto said siding rails 12.

Thus, for example, in the case when a tuyere 9, is broken, the tuyere replacing means 4 can be moved to the location of the broken part as indicated by the arrow a and the tuyere can be replaced. Since each piece of equip ment is provided with at least one motor, whenever it interferes with another piece of said equipment, it can be freely moved to another position.

Considering FIGURE 2, an I-beam is provided just below the bustle pipe 2 for hot air. A rail supporting frame 14 is provided on said I-beam and said rails 3 are secured to said rail supporting frame 14. A running carriage 16, which can move on wheels 15 which run on the flanges of said rails 3 when the wheels 15 are driven by a driving motor (not illustrated), is positioned on said rails 3. An operating mechanism for replacing tuyeres is suspended on said running carriage 16. Said I-beam 13 is provided with arms 27 by which the beam is mounted on the furnace wall.

A cylinder 17 and a horizontal mover 18 are mounted on said carriage 16 so that when said tuyere replacing means 4 has been moved to the location of any broken tuyere it can be operated to replace said tuyere.

Referring, now, to FIGURE 3 a tapping hole opening means is suspended from a running carriage 16 and moves along said rails 3 on wheels 15 in the same manner as described for the tuyere replacing means 4. Trolley wires 19 are suspended from said rail supporting frame 14 and means (not shown) are provided on the carriage 16 to couple the wires 19 with motors 20, 21 and 21' positioned on the running carriage. Motor 21 supplies a driving force to the running wheels 15; motor 21 and 21' are used for winding the wires 24 supporting base 22. A link 23 is pivoted at one end about a point on said running carriage 16 and at the other end about a point on the supporting base 22. A wire 24 is 56-- cured between link 23 and said motor 21.

During the operation of said tapping hole opening means 5, the supporting base 22 is inclined toward the tapping hole in such a way that an air hammer drill 25 is slidable along said supporting base 22. When it is time for tapping, said opening means is moved to the desired position and with the supporting base 22 in the position described above, the tapping hole is opened. When said opening operation is completed, the motor 21 is operated to re-wind wire 24 which raises the supporting bar 22 to the position 22' shown by the chain line. Said supporting bar 22 remains in this position until another opening is required. The motors are controlled by pushbutton 26.

What is claimed is:

1. A blast furnace servicing apparatus for a blast furnace having a bustle pipe for supplying hot air, said servicing apparatus comprising annular rails, positioned just below the bustle pipe for hot air for the blast furnace, and extending around the periphery of the furnace, a plurality of pieces of auxiliary equipment each having wheels and at least one motor and suspended on said rails, and direction changing means and siding rails operatively associated with said annular rails so that said pieces of equipment can be removed from said annular rails onto said siding rails at the position of said direction changing means.

2. A blast furnace servicing apparatus, as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an I-beam positioned just below said bustle pipe for hot air, a rail supporting frame positioned on said I-beam and to which said rails are secured, and a running carriage for each of said plurality of pieces of auxiliary equipment on which said motor is positioned and to which said running wheels are attached.

3. A blast furnace servicing apparatus, as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a supporting base linked to said running carriage so as to have an up and down movement, and an additional motor to operate said supporting base in said up and down motion.

4. A blast furnace servicing apparatus, as claimed in claim 2, wherein said auxiliary equipment includes an operating mechanism for replacing tuyeres.

5. A blast furnace servicing apparatus, as claimed in claim 2, further comprising trolley wires suspended from said rail supporting frame and means on said carriage connecting said wires to said motors, said motors being coupled to said wheels to supply a driving force to said wheels.

6. A blast furnace servicing apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said auxiliary equipment includes tuyere replacing means, tapping hole opening means, tapping hole closing means and slag notch opening and closing means.

7. A blast furnace servicing apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein said tapping hole closing means comprises a mud gun.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,228,255 1/1941 Brosius 26642 2,425,792 8/ 1947 Forbes 26642 3,033,551 5/1962 Bowland 26642 3,314,671 4/1967 Heino et a1 26642 J. SPENCER OVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner JOHN S. BROWN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 2l41; 26642 

